Tuesday, 16 Apr 2024

Spanish anti-tourism graffiti orders British holidaymakers in Mallorca to ‘get out’

Palma, the Catalan capital, has long been a tourist destination popular with British holidaymakers. Around 2.3 million British tourists enjoy holidaying on the island. Brits account for more than a quarter of the total number of tourists that flock to the Mallorca yearly.

But the Spanish city has seen a rise in anti-tourism graffiti.

The city’s council has been working to remove the daubing, of which some say “tourists go home, refugees welcome”.

But another two slogans on the same street, the Calle Del Olms, a busy shopping street – are still visible.

They read and “Stop lloguer turistic” (holiday rental) and “Fora del barri Especuladors” (speculators out of the neighbourhood).

Palma residents have argued that holidaymakers renting cars and homes on the island are “choking” the city.

The council say the slogans still remain because they are awaiting permission from the building owners to remove the offensive writing.

The city council believes that because the same red paint was used for all slogans, it is the work of the same person.

The latest incident follows calls in July for Arca – the city’s heritage association – to assign a department to tackle graffiti in the city.

Arca says the problem of graffiti is vandalism rather than art.

It says graffiti damages Palma’s image, harms the city’s patrimony and causes both psychological and economic harm.

The graffiti is the latest incident of anti-tourist campaigning to hit the Spanish holiday hotspot.

Last month, a video showed vandals attacking a holidaymaker’s rental car with a hammer and spraying it with graffiti.

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The vandals said tourism in the city was “unsustainable”.

Anti-tourism campaign group Arran believe that mass tourism on the island creates issues such as the housing crisis and causes huge amounts of traffic.

It comes despite restaurant and hotel owners defending tourist activity, claiming holidaymakers bring “huge opportunity” to the island.

The group published the footage showing protestors painting rental vehicles with the motto “neighbours vs tourists”.

The group said in a statement: “With this action, we want to point out a specific problem.

“The more than 100,000 tourist rental cars per year and, at the same time, denounce the entire tourist model that prevails in the “Catalan Countries” and the island of Majorca.”

In January 2018, the group burned down a Spanish flag during Palma’s Mallorca Day celebrations.

The group has also thrown eggs at buses and stormed restaurants with smoke bombs.

And in August last year, around Arran members into the sea at El Arenal on the south coast to let off orange flares and hold aloft placards claiming “Tourism kills Majorca”.

But the demonstration, watched by dozens of families on the beach during one of the busiest weeks of the summer, turned nasty as tourists turned the tables.

They swore and shouted at the protestors, accusing them of being “shameless”.

A number of sunbathers, believed to be Spanish, also accused them of putting their jobs at risk because of their anti-tourism views.

Also in 2018, the Socialist Party of Mallorca urged the local council to curb the number of cruises allowed.

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